THE NEW ANGORA

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1929, Page 8

THE NEW ANGORA

THE GHAZI BUJLUS A CITY,

(By Sir Percival Phillips)

Angara is the must interesting specimen in my collection of capitals. iNew Deilii is spacious and imposing, hut cynically aware tliat capitals rise only to fall again. Erom the throneroom of the Viceroy’s new brown stone palace you look out over the ruins ol o her Delliis long since levelled with utc piain.

Canberra is a clean and cheerful Tn--I‘ant that believes all tilings permanent; an infant endowed with the aoounding vitality of Australia, prouo of its position on a pleasant hillside, a.0..-f from the jealous rivalry of the

provinces. Nairobi is another exuberant child in the family of new capitals, recalling in its haphazard, untidy dress (as i wrote before) certain aspects of Surbiton and Saskatoon transplanted to the reclaimed site of a great national zoo. Nairobi is wildly hospitable, rather intolerant of its elders, aim prone to display with extreme frankness all tne virtues and vices ol von til.

Angora is in a class by itself. Youngest of afl, it is nevertheless, mature. It is permeated with a spirit ol 'fierce idealism. The very bricks and mortar of iLs 20th-century garb are a challenge to the dying traditions of a mediaeval age. A capital created by one man and obedient to its creator ii. ad things; grimly industrious and not given to levity. A cm Id that commands admiration but not affection Kemal Dasha, cal.ed the Ghazi, made Angora,, his headquarters for the •reconstruction of Turkey. That extraordinary man shifted the capital, almost overnight, from its secure seat at Constantinople to this ancient and decaying town in 'the bills of Anatolia, r'omign diplomats, rooted in their palatial embassies above the Bosphorus watched the' migration with sceptical amusement. They expected the capital to return to them, as birds return in the spring. They were rudely disappointed. 77u (jihazi turned his back oil the straggling old town of Angora, and its crumbling citadei perched on a lofty spur anu, began to dig the foundations lor a new city of modern buildings on the slopes below. There was no dallying over estimates; no windy debates. New Angora emerged from the brown wastes of Anatolia like the mango planted by the Indian magician. The seed was planted eight years ago. Public buildings began to sprout a few months later. They were solid structures of honest stone and concrete. The Ghazi let it be known that jerrybuilding was akin to treason. He supervised plans; laid out streets, squares, and gardens; sent architects about their business; even interviewed plumbers and electrical engineers. The result must be seen to be appreciated. More than £6,0.10,000 lias already been expended. There are boulevards, modern street lighting, and scientific drainage systems-. MininsteriaT departments occupy homes that would do credit to- any European city. The President of the Council, the Foreign, Finance, and War Ministers all have buildings planned and equipped by the best experts, the new Ministery of Health and Institute of Hygiene are in the’most imposing of them all. A law school was lniilt seven years ago. A temporary House of Parliament, situated on a commanding, eminence, will lie worthy of comparison with most of the parliamentary buildings of the Western world. Old Turkey looks wistfully at this relentless invasion. Gradually it is disappearing, as the new banks and business buildings eat into the labyrinth of ramshackle wooden shops and winding, cobble-stoned streets that compose the lower town of old Ang-

' The Diplomatic Corps realises that Angora has conic to stay. Germany and Soviet ‘ Russia have already built permanent headquarters for their representatives, and France and Poland are donig otherwise. The other Ambassadors and Ministers of Foreign Powers, still snugly entrenched in their Constantinople retreats, are beginning to think of packing up.

When the Gha/.i put his linger on Angora and said, “Let it be here,” Angora had 35,00.) inhabitants. When Lite census &is taken a year ago there were 75,000, and the population is steadily growing. There are taxri-. cabs like luxurious touring cars, driven by Turks whose only idea of making a living before the Gha/.i came was to polish the bools of ail occasional bagman. New industries are springing up. Cement, brick and ice factories already exist. Masons, bricklayers and carpenters are much in demand The streets are filled with heavy wagons: full of dressed stone and baulks of. timber. The Glinzi, is his modest home on the liil I —a house more like a bungalow than the palace of a Dictator—watches it all with an eye that misses mothing. 'More than a mere compliment is expressed in the gigantic statue of him that stands at . the head of the Ixmlevn.Td leading from the railway station into the new town, lie wears service uniform and is seated on his charger. At the four corners of the broad pedestal are Turkish in fantrymen with bayonets pointing in threatening altitudes. Th«> Ghnzi t-v'ks out grimly over his rising capital. You can almost hoar him saying in his curt manner that brooks no opposition: “Get on with it.”